Tissue Paper Hearts

I think Valentine's Day is actually my least favorite holiday (I know, Jason's a lucky guy - I keep reminding him of this fact :), but I'll admit it is fun to celebrate with kids. There are a lot of cute crafts to do, so we've made into more of a family holiday, which is always more fun. So, this year, I found this craft to try with Caden and Abigail. They got a little frustrated when the contact paper stuck to their arms, but overall they seemed to enjoy it. The end result is really cute (sorry I don't actually have a picture of ours, but the link shows an example)!

Caden's first heart (I think he made about 3)

I love Abby's smile in the background.

cutie

really sticky stuff

Even my sister, Erin, got in on the fun...doesn't she look thrilled?

Abigail's Christmas Craft

Abigail's Christmas craft was decorating foam snowmen with scarfs, sticks for arm, a colored band on the hat, and a carrot nose. She usually got the band near the hat, but she added her own style to everything else.

Caden helped out too of course. He added some extra stuff to his. He didn't like Abby's stuff being everywhere, he would try to fix them.

Then Caden made a "necklace" for me out of some extra pieces. I wore it Christmas morning. By the time I was done wearing it, this strip of paper had maybe 2 pieces left. The rest we had to pull out of my hair.

Caden's Christmas Craft

Caden's craft this year was a foam gingerbread house. It was a bigger craft, so we spread it out over 2 days. The age was 6+, but I figured he could do it. He did a really nice job with it. He even looked at the picture to see where certain things are supposed to go. Then at the end he put some gumdrops down on the snow to use as stepping stones like at his cousins' house (they have stepping stones as a sidewalk). He put any of the extra pieces inside the house and called them witches (guess he's thinking of Hansel and Gretel).

He kept sticking the gumdrops to his hand.

He's showing the gumdrop stepping stones to Abby.

Abby was pretty impressed.

Valentine Craft

I found this really cute (and free!) yarn Valentine craft in February's Family Fun edition.
Start with cutting strips of yarn into foot-long pieces. We used whatever yarn we had, so we ended up with blue and purple hearts.

Caden sat and played with the yarn the whole time...ended up being a Mommy and Daddy craft. He didn't want to get his hands all yucky!

Then, dunk the yarn into the glue:
Combine 1/4 cup of cornstarch and 1/2 cup of water in a saucepan and stir until smooth. Heat the mixture until it's thick and translucent. Allow to cool to the touch. If the mixture gets too gellike, stir in 1/4 cup of hot water. You can store this glue in the refrigerator for up to a week.
Pick up the piece and run it between thumb and forefinger to remove the excess glue.

Place a heart-shaped cookie cutter on the shiny side of a piece of parchment paper (thanks Kim for letting us borrow your papery). Lay the yarn inside the cookie cutter. Repeat with other pieces until the yarn fills the heart shape in a thin layer. With clean hands (this was Jason's part), press the yarn flat. Gently life off the cookie cutter and allow the yarn to dry hard, at least a day.

This was my favorite yarn to use.

Then when Erin and my mom came to visit this past weekend, we finished using up the glue. Erin didn't care to get her hands yucky either.

And this is what Caden was doing while we were finishing up this craft.

Christmas Craft

This year for his craft, Caden put together a foam nativity scene. It was quite easy to do, and he seemed to have a good time.

Abigail also had a good time watching us.

The finished product.
(We hope everyone is having a great Christmas Eve!)

Finger Painting

I had a finger painting set for a long time now and finally remembered to get it out to try with Caden. He was very careful at first, just using one finger in the red, but by the time I got the camera it turned into whole hand painting. He really had fun. I'm glad he doesn't mind getting his hands dirty anymore.

I love the look on his face.

This was only half way through. By the end both hands were completely covered.

The final product...it was tough getting a picture of him as you can see by the picture below.